JOHNSON CITY (December 11, 2012) – East Tennessee State University’s Honors College has instituted an advisory board composed of seven of the college’s alumni. The board will advise the college on engaging alumni, planning and organizing alumni events, and creating initiatives to foster and sustain the active involvement of alumni.

Dr. Rebecca Pyles, Dean of the Honors College, says “This is an opportune time for the ETSU Honors College to reconnect with all our Honors alumni. As ETSU strategically positions itself for the next century, our Alumni Advisory Board will help us create a vibrant Honors College Alumni Organization for the more than 1,000 Honors Program graduates.”

The seven board members include Erika Adams, a 2007 graduate who is now Director of College Access programs at Northeast State Community College; Jennifer Anderson, a 1999 graduate and now an assistant professor of art at Virginia’s Hollins University; Maegan McNerney-Azar, who graduated in 2003 and is an assistant professor of acting and directing at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.; Kelley Hatch-Draper, who received a bachelor’s degree in 2009 and will soon earn her second ETSU master’s degree while employed as a history instructor at Northeast State; Jonathan Hatcher, who received two bachelors degrees from ETSU in 2007 and is groundskeeper at the Ecovillage Training Center in Summertown; Rachel Ward-Ratliff, a 2006 graduate who then attended the Appalachian School of Law and now has her own law practice; and Whitney Trotter-Ross, who received her undergraduate ETSU degree in 2010 and now attends the ETSU James H. Quillen College of Medicine.